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The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday it is committed to strengthening the security of mail from foreign countries.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, the nation's first Homeland Security secretary, told the Tribune-Review this week that a loophole in federal law has helped create a pipeline for opioids to be shipped illegally to the United States.
Ridge said the U.S. Postal Service and foreign postal services aren't required to include advance electronic security data with U.S.-bound packages as private shippers such as FedEx and UPS are. The data helps authorities more effectively target packages with contraband such as drugs, he said. Washington lawmakers are expected to introduce legislation soon that would require the data on all items shipped to the United States.
“The Postal Service is committed to increasing the amount of mail for which it receives this crucial data,” spokesman David A. Partenheimer said in an email.
Partenheimer said the Postal Service already receives the data on a “substantial amount” of foreign shipments, though he did not say how many or what percentage of items include the information. The Washington-based nonprofit Americans for Securing All Packages, for whom Ridge is an adviser, estimates that 340 million packages a year enter the country without the data.
Partenheimer said new regulations taking effect this year are expected to “enhance our ability to require foreign posts to send electronic data.” He added that the Postal Service is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on a pilot program that could “aid in the effort to detect foreign-origin contraband,” including dangerous synthetic opioids, much of which are made in foreign laboratories and then shipped to the United States.
Tom Fontaine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine@tribweb.com.
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